Nikki D, the first female rapper signed to Def Jam Records posted a video on Facebook expressing her displeasure with this year’s Hip-Hop Honors broadcast.
“You talk about creating history, 25 years of Hip-Hop and we begin to erase it ourselves,” she says via her video blog.
In 1989 Nichelle “Nikki D” Strong was signed to Def Jam and in 1991 released the album, Daddy’s Little Girl which contained the hit single of the same name.
“I’m really disappointed in the people who put together the Hip-Hop Honors. I’ve known you Nelson George (the producer of the show) forever. I’ve known Russell (Simmons) even longer. So it baffles me that no one called to ask me if I wanted to go to the (expletive) show. Nobody even sent me an invite to the show.”
After finding out about a Def Jam documentary that VH1 was producing Slick Rick’s wife Mandy passed along the contact information. But when it came down to the actual honors broadcast Nikki says she was not invited.
“When I was 18 years old I was on a mission to become the first female rapper at Def Jam. I hopped on a Greyhound for four days and lied to my mother saying I got a deal with Def Jam. I went through a whole lot and found Russell Simmons in six months.”
She cut her demo with the LA Posse, who was working on LL Cool J’s album at Chung King, and recorded two songs in two hours.
“We got the record to Russell and less than a month later Russell wanted to sign me. He sent me on tour with Whodini and I got to be groomed by the best. I shot a video with Alyson Williams in London before I could even shoot a video. I was in Europe for a few weeks then I put a record out, “Lettin Off Steam.”
Nikki D’s “Lettin Off Steam”
After “Lettin Off Steam” Nikki followed up with the song everyone knows her for, “Daddy’s Little Girl.” Fueled by a sample of D.N.A’s “Tom’s Diner” it debuted at #1 on the Rap Singles charts.
“Daddy’s Little Girl changed a lot of people’s lives,” she continued. “The record that made young women come up to me in the street and say I appreciate you. That record allowed me to go to schools and speak to young women.”
But appreciation is something Nikki D is not feeling from the VH1 folks right now.
“Everybody is so wrapped up into the show that nobody is into the history. Everyone wants the book but no one wants to really read it. We’re always saying the white man is destroying our history but we’re doing it to ourselves.”
After asking for her release from Def Jam Nikki D worked as a music executive and then with Russell Simmons at Phat Farm as a Marketing Manager.
“I don’t care who had the first platinum record over there, but you can’t erase history. At the end of the day it was a sucky job.”
Nikki D certainly wasn’t the only Def Jam artist left out of the broadcast. Let us know what you think about the omissions from the show.
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